Problem Child
by Avenging Neko
Summary: Seras Victoria is an orphan. She's also ten years old and living on the streets. She has only one friend; an older girl with black hair and red eyes known as Ally that she sees every few days, and always when the sun sets.
1. Runaway

**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**

**_Neko: _**I know, I know** another **story for me to slack on updating. But my competition with JuJu gives me an excuse to bust out more stories so my muse can cram it and stop throwing hissy fits. I've neen slowly rereading WCHB to get it back on its original track with an update soon, but we'll see how "soon" soon is. UNTIL THEN! Here's two chapters. Need one more to catch up~

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_01: Runaway_

Seras Victoria stared coldly at the orphanage building and her lip curled. The ten year old had her backpack stuffed with snack food and a few water bottles, a blanket, her spare changes of clothes, and the last picture she owned of her parents before their death. She was running away from this hellish place before she went mad.

The blonde absolutely refused to go back to the mad house they sent her to right from her hospital bed four years ago. Cringing at the thought, Seras turned and began walking south towards the park and the nearby bus depot. She had to get moving before they noticed she was missing.

About an hour of walking later, the blonde reached the park, shoulders drooping and feet tired. Rummaging in her pocket to check her emergency money was still there, she started to turn towards the bus station across the street when a voice called her name. A familiar one.

"Seras!"

She pivoted on her heel and was blinded by the light of the setting sun as a body plowed into her and sent her tumbling to the grass below, and the pair rolled down the small hill, laughing. "Ally! What're you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking **you** that question, Seras." The older girl replied, sitting in the grass to the blonde's left. Seras' old and badly abused backpack unzipped at the side to spill out her collection of snack bags and a hint of one of her shirts. "…Are you running away?" The ravenette's eyes seemed to glow cherry red, but the blonde dismissed it as a trick of the light as she cursed and shoved the items back into her bag.

"So what if I am?" She snapped defensively, tugging the zipper down with a grunt to redo the gaping hole and close it. "So you missed the last bus leaving town for the next two hours." Ally replied calmly. "So let's go hang out on the swings to kill some time."

"Oh… okay." Seras conceded, her built up agitation deflating at Ally's calm tone. Since her friend wasn't trying to change her mind, the blonde relaxed and joined the white clad teenager at the playground. Swings are awesome.

"Sooo…" The older girl drawled, "What made you decide to leave?" She was swinging higher and higher until the swing set was rocking each time gravity let go and then grabbed the girl again to pull her back from her freefall into her seat.

Seras stared at her feet, a stony look on her face as she pushed on the sand to just inch back and forth. Images flashed through her head painfully; _the other girls ganging up on her with looks of hatred and swinging their pillowcases full of shoes at her to leave purple bruises along her ribs and arms. Being locked in the closet and unable to move. The adults turning a blind eye. The boys…_ Shuddering violently, Seras began to attack the air with her feet to push herself higher to escape her memories. "it doesn't matter. What matters is I'm not going back." That same steely conviction in her voice from the first time they met and she told Ally she'd become a police woman to make her dad proud colored her tone heavily.

If she had glanced at Ally then, she would have seen the strangest expression on her face; calculating, angry, pleased, almost… perverse. The ravenette inhaled sharply and breathed a single word, the sound lost to the growing wind. _"Glorious."_

"Hey, Police Girl, want to see a trick?" Ally teased, and as soon as Seras turned her head to look, the young teen let go of the chains to fly from her seat and land in the tree ten feet off, hanging upside down and grinning like a loon.

Seras boggled, "How… how did you **do** that, Ally?!" Her troubles temporarily forgotten, ten year old Seras Victoria's attention was drawn solely to the red eyed girl dangling from the tree branch with a cocky grin.

"I'm amazing, that's how." Ally purred, and wiggled her gloved fingers enticingly. "If you jump, I'll catch you, Seras."

The blonde hesitated.

"Don't you _trust _me, Seras?" Something about the older girl's tone sent shivers down her spine and she frowned, fidgeting in her seat. Legs still pumping to keep up her momentum. "Of course I do, Ally."

The blonde wasn't even sure why she trusted Ally, though. They'd only known each other for a month and their meetings were sporadic at best. But she did, she was drawn to the older girl, felt… safe? No, not quite, but that was the closest word she could name for what she felt around the girl.

With that thought in mind, she squinched her eyes shut and allowed herself to fly free of the seat and towards the tree, Ally, and quite possibly the ground. At the last second her arms shot straight up and her wrists were grabbed by what felt like cold irons and the world tilted sickeningly as her momentum was used to swing the pair up and over the branch to sit on it properly. "Oooh…" Seras moaned, feeling sick, "Never do that again."

Ally laughed in her ear and brought her arms up around the blonde's shoulders to cradle the smaller body to hers, "But wasn't it fun, little Police Girl, to fly through the air and be caught?"

Seras reply was muffed into Ally's white coat, noncommittal and bland. Then she blinked and leaned back to eye her friend curiously. "Hey, Ally, why're you calling me Police Girl?"

"That's what you want to be when you grow up, isn't it?"

"Well yeah…"

"Then what's the problem?"

Furrowing her brows, the ten year old stared into those bright red eyes, looking for something… Unsure if she found it or not with all the things she saw in those strangely alluring orbs, she simply rested her cheek on the older girl's shoulder and sighed.

"Nothing, I guess."

"Well, if you want to catch your bus, we should get down. I'll wait with you." Seras blinked in shock, and noticed then that the sun was completely gone. How long had she spent zoning out on her only friend? Feeling a little embarrassed, Seras squeaked when the girl showed off _again_ by dropping forward abruptly and holding onto the branch with her ivory pant clad legs to set the blonde down by a careful grip on her wrists. And then she showed off even_ more _by letting go and landing in a hand stand!

"Doesn't that hurt?" Seras couldn't help but ask as she scurried over to the swings to retrieve her backpack and swing the straps up over her shoulders.

"Pfff, naw. I told you, I'm amazing." A too-wide grin showed nearly all the teeth in Ally's head as she grabbed Seras' hand and tugged her close. "C'mon, let's go."

Feeling rather cold, even though she was shielded from most of the wind by the taller ravenette, Seras shivered and decided that once they sat down she'd get her coat out of her bag and put it on. The pair crossed the street carefully and sat on the bench under the brightest light in the small depot. Seras wiggled into her rather worn and obviously hand-me-down coat and shoved a hand into her pants pocket to assure herself she still had her money. She did.

They received some odd looks from others waiting for their own buses, adults mostly, but no one approached to question them and Seras relaxed against her friend's side. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. Twenty. At thirty minutes finally the right bus arrived for the last ride out of town until tomorrow morning.

Seras got up and Ally followed behind her as she made her way to the bus and started plonking coins into the ticket machine next to the driver. When she had a full fare paid for, she turned and realized the other was still standing outside the bus. "Aren't you coming with me?" She asked, a little confused.

The ravenette smiled, and opened her mouth, her tone soothing. "Not this time, Seras. But I'll see you soon, I promise."

"Bu-…"

"'ey, kid, we're running late." The driver butted in and with a glance at the white clad teenager – she stepped back obligingly in answer – he swung the lever and closed the door, "Take your seat girly. It's a long ride."

Seras nodded and took a seat near the front to watch her surroundings easier through the glow from the headlights.

"So, kid, you going to a relatives?" The driver asked after a while, she was the youngest passenger on the bus and it was getting late.

"Mm, yeah, my aunt's." Seras replied with the same ease she used to lie to the nuns at the orphanage. The driver grunted and decided to mind his own business, he wasn't paid enough to pry anyways.

"Hey kid, last stop. You sure your aunt's gonna pick you up?" The driver asked, lightly shaking the blonde's shoulder. She'd fallen asleep.

Seras shook her head, yawned, blinked, and then nodded. "Yeah, she's waiting for me." She replied with that same honest-seeming ease. The driver gave her a look, and she grinned at him before scampering out the open door and into the streets of the new city.

Bee lining it to the right, Seras ran for about five blocks before her feet hurt and she spotted a nice plain looking house with an excess of hedges. Crawling under one of the thicker ones and huddling against the gnarled trunk, the blonde pulled her blanket out, one of her chip bags, and used the still full bag as a pillow.


	2. First Week

**_Seras Victoria: Problem Child_**

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_02: First Week_

Seras woke, shivering. _Brr! It's cold._

Huddling deeper into her blanket she fumbled for her backpack to retrieve her last bag of crisps. She was getting sorta sick of them anyhow. Munching her salty breakfast she pondered what to do next. She felt like it was time to move on to a different city, this one was too small and the adults were giving her strange looks. Maybe she could…

Peeking cautiously out of the bush, she watched the house for a good ten minutes for any sign of life inside. She _really_ needed more food.

A voice in the back of her head nagged that what she was considering doing wasn't what a cop would do. But she wasn't a cop yet, and still just a kid, she defended mentally.

Decision made she crept cautiously up to the house and tried the back door, it was unlocked and led directly into the kitchen. Being careful not to make a sound, she rummaged in the pantry for food she could take with her. Taking the cereal bags out of their boxes and some crackers, refilling her water bottles, and grabbing the packet of jerky Seras turned back to the glass door and froze. A woman in a beige terry cloth robe was standing at the entrance to the kitchen with a stunned look on her face before her cheeks flushed with rage and she advanced with heavy steps, "'oo th' bloody 'ell d'ye think y' are comin' inta **my** ;ouse an' stealin' **my **food y' little beggar?" The woman's hand raised to slap her and Seras bolted, her little legs pumping like the wind as she threw the door open and leaped over the hedge, bag held protectively to her chest as the home owner chased after her screaming bloody murder. Seras ducked through five different yards before the sound of pursuit stopped and she slumped against a fence before crawling into the nearby bush and wincing as the thorns snagged her clothes.

Pulling out the bag of jerky and one of her refilled waters, Seras munched on her additional breakfast and rested a bit. After a while, she dared to escape the neighborhood and make her way to the bus depot for another bus heading south. South seemed to be a good direction.

A three hour bus ride later, with various bald faced lies to the prying adults, the somewhat ragged looking orphan escaped into a local park and plonked herself down on the swing set.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

Yawning, she rubs tiredly at her eyes and pulls another snack from her backpack and glances around for any witnesses before she scurries up a nearby tree and onto the convenient wooden landing. Clearly someone was building a tree fort. All the better for her that it'd be a kid she could maybe play with, she was getting a bit lonely. Using the bag as a pillow, she settled down for a nap.

"Seras."

Jerking awake, the blonde bit her lip to muffle her shriek as she stared into luminous red eyes. _Oh._

"Ally? How'd you find me?"

The girl gave a secretive grin and clucked her tongue, "That's my secret to keep, little Police Girl. I came to check on you. How's life on the streets?"

"…Okay, I guess."

The ravenette's eyes gleamed knowingly as she swung her legs over the edge of the wooden platform. "I can't stay long, but I've got time to teach you some survival techniques, Seras."

"Oh. Cool."


	3. Reflections

**_Seras Victoria: Problem Child_**

**_Neko:_ **For those of you that haven't read The Seldom Seen. this chapter should fill in a few gaps. We'll return to our regularly scheduled waifism next chapter. So you guys know, the full memory fragments of Child!Seras are located in chapters 12 and 16.

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_03: Reflections_

Seras' bag made rustling noises as she shifted around, trying to get comfortable inside the curved tube suspended between the platforms of the playground. It was still early, and she had learned to lay low until around the time school would be out – it was in session now, and she had no desire to be narced on for "skipping" since she didn't belong, Ally had told her that – it had been a little over ten days since her escape from the hell hole she had been sent to after the incident with the dog. Thinking of the dog made her smile despite all the trouble she was in afterwards. She remembered…

_Nine year old Seras was tucked away in her room, reading, avoiding the other children. She'd been there for three years, but still felt like an outsider. One of the orphanage workers walked down the hallway, saw her just sitting there, and sick of her sullen silence, kicked her out into the yard to 'try and get along with the others already'. The blonde stared at the swing set rather longingly, but it was full up, and the other kids hated her as much as she hated then, Instead, she wandered over to her favorite tree and flopped down against the trunk, looking at all the pretty flowers on the other side of the chain link fence surrounding the orphanage. _

_The sun started its descent into the horizon when she heard a strange sound. Looking up, she stared at the lumbering black hound tearing through the gardens and his trailing leash end. She felt the strangest draw towards that dog._

_Deciding to do something about it before the adults called the pound, she scrambled up the fence, nimble as a monkey, and dropped down in the patch of marigolds feet first. "Here doggy doggy doggy…" Holding her hand out flat, she edged closer to the loop of chain in the petunias._

_The hound turned and Seras was startled to see red eyes, not just a brownish red, but like rubies soaked in blood. Keeping her cool, she inched closer still, hoping to grab the leash before it – he, she thought, unsure why – ran off. "Nice doggy, c'mere boy." Surprisingly, he obeyed and sniffed her hand pleasantly enough. Reaching for his leash, she hooked her fingers into the plastic covered loop and grinned at the great beast. "Hiya, boy. Did you escape your master? Just wanted to play in the flowers, huh?" She crooned to him cheerfully, feeling at ease with him despite his size nearly dwarfing her; his shoulders met her chest, and he could easily rip out her throat._

_"Hey, Ser found a dog!" A male voice called, and she cringed. "It's huge!" Five bodies followed her path over the fence and her least favorite group of boys jeered at her as they approached. "Aw, betcha it's harmless. Probably stupid if it let her grab the leash." A round of vicious laughter followed this statement as the older boys spread out in an arc to cut off her escape. "Hey, it's got a collar, maybe we can get some reward money for returning it!"_

_Seras scowled and her grip tightened on the leash, body tensing to run. She knew where a pile of rocks was, and she'd need them with five against one. The dog growled and curled his lip back viciously as Fred got too close. "Shit!" Fred leaped back a good two feet and glared, "Stupid mutt."_

_The dog barked then, the sound loud and threatening, and the five boys glanced at each other nervously before identical cruel smirks curled their lips and they reached into their pants pockets for handfuls of rocks. Seras' eyes widened and she jumped in front of the dog to act as a shield, "Don't you touch him you bastards!"_

_"Oh look, Ser's got a new best friend." Fred mocked, "Can't get along with humans so you turn to animals huh? No wonder your parents left you here, you freak!"_

_Seras jerked, and lowered her head, teeth gritting visibly as she clenched her fists, "Take that back you fucking bastard!" She screamed, eyes blazing as she charged blindly at the red headed boy, leash forgotten at her feet. The first rock hit her in the corner of her eye, followed by another in her gut. The boys jeered and laughed as they pelted her with small stones, mocking her viciously and calling her a freak. Blood trickled down her cheek like a crimson tear and suddenly the dog was no longer content to sit and watch. The great black beast snarled and lunged at Davie, nearly taking his hand off as he let loose another projectile at the wounded girl. The blonde screamed bloody murder and a wet mark spread swiftly across his shorts. The other four shouted in alarm as the dog pounced and pinned Fred to the ground, growling and nearly foaming at the mouth with rage._

_Davie and the other three bolted, screaming, over the fence to get an adult, or just get away from the scene of the crime. "Ser… hey Ser call him off." Fred pleaded, his own pants wetted by urine as he stared fearfully up at the set of teeth hovering in front of his eyes._

_Seras did nothing, simply stood there, bruised and bloody and staring with cold eyes at the scene before her. Her silence was her answer._

_Just as the dog leaned down to do something horrible a sharp whistle rent the air and he stilled. "Heel, Alucard." _

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she smiled remembering the blue eyed blonde with glasses that was Alucard's owner. Alucard was an odd name for a dog, she thought, and hummed. Come to think of it, what was the other girl's name..? She couldn't remember. She did remember that the boys had lied, saying she set the dog on them, and, well _of course_ no one listened to her when she said it was all an accident. She was sent packing to the **Good Christian's Home For Troubled Children** orphanage within the week, and never got another chance to see the dog again. Was it weird? For her to think of the hound so fondly even after a year, he must have forgotten her by now, anyways.

Thinking of the dog reminded her of Ally, she was sure it must be the eyes.

She'd known the girl for a little over six months, had first met her on a museum trip in November…

_Most of the kids thought it was boring, but Seras considered it rather fascinating. She, of course, snuck off from the others to explore the dinosaur exhibit instead. The almost-ten year old stared up at the models wide eyed, making little noises of glee as she caught sight of the sharp teeth and claws. Feminine laughter answered hers from above and Seras glanced up curiously only to gasp in awe at the sight of the white clad ravenette perched on the T-Rex's head. "Oh wow, how did you get up there?"_

_"I'll come down." The girl answered, and she slid down the curved spine and did a hand spring off the tip of the tail to land with a flourish of her long coat a few feet from Seras, a rather mad grin on her pale face. "That was amazing!" The blonde orphan squealed, clapping her hands._

_"I try." The girl answered, red eyes gleaming with smug pleasure._

_"Say, what's your name? Mine's Seras. Can we be friends?" Seras chirped, feeling a strange connection to the other – who could be no older than thirteen surely? – despite never seeing her before._

_"Forgotten already have we?" She replied mysteriously before flashing another of those too-wide grins, "You can call me Ally, Seras."_

_Seras blinked and cocked her head to one side curiously before shrugging it off, "Hey, Ally, how did you get up there? It looked fun." A mischievous grin twitched the blonde's lips as she stared up at the brontosaurus model._

_"I climbed of course. It was easy."_

Seras grinned, remembering how much trouble they got in when Ally was about to show her how to climb dinosaur bones. The security guard was **really** mad at them.

They'd run off to the gallery, pretending to catch up with the orphanage group ro avoid being escorted. Seras still wasn't sure how they pulled it off, but they had tilted every single painting within arms reach before running into Sister Marguerite.

_"There you are, Seras! Where have you been?" A haggard voice called as one of the orphanage workers caught sight of the blonde's tell-tale hairstyle. The blonde sobered instantly and stared solemnly at the nun, straightening up and folding her hands behind her back, "I had to use the loo and I got lost." She answered, lying with a straight face._

_Sister Marguerite glared at her suspiciously, then turned her gaze to the blonde's companion and flinched, "Seras, who's your new friend?" She asked with a slightly shaky voice. Seras quirked a brow, and turned to look at Ally, "Oh, this is Ally, I met her on the way back." Ally grinned and the nun took a half step back, crossing herself. "Girl, where are your parents? You shouldn't be wandering alone." The Sister scolded the unsettling child, and Seras frowned. "She wasn't alone, she was with me!"_

_Marguerite jerked her chin to stare at Seras. That was the most emotion she'd heard from the girl in the half year she'd spent with them. Pursing her lips and flicking her gaze back to Ally, the nun sighed, "Well come along then, the group is waiting. I suppose there's no harm in adding one more to our number until it's time to leave." She shot the ravenette a look that clearly said 'I'll be keeping my eye on you' and bustled off down the hallway towards the sound of many children gathered together. Seras glanced at Ally with a hopeful look on her face and the older girl sighed and nodded._

_The pair trailed behind the Sister, holding hands once more and whispering conspiratorially together. Some of the other children stared at them, and still others edged away deeper into the group, but the girls ignored them._

She remembered braiding Ally's hair and tying it with her own hairband – she loved Ally's hair almost as much as she loved the older girl's red eyes – while they explored the remainder of the museum in a group until it was time for the pre-fireworks supper. Ally had sat with her and they'd talked, and watched the sky show, but Ally's … Seras frowned, trying to remember, perhaps an uncle, had snatched her away as soon as it was over, scolding her for going off on her own. But that wasn't the end of their meeting, no. They met at least once a week at the playground just down the street from the orphanage. The other kids jeered at her, complaining she thought she was better than them, always hanging out with that older girl. Well of course she hung out with Ally, Ally was nice.

She remembered, also, that on her tenth birthday – her first in that particular orphanage – her present came in the form of being hauled into the headmaster's office for hitting one of the bullies with a rock for taking her doll. They talked about her as if she wasn't there, and he threatened to send her to another orphanage, one that would somehow be worse than the one she was already in. Really, calling it an orphanage was being kind, no adults ever came here to _adopt_ kids, not like the first one – **Saint Jude's Home For The Dispossessed** – she'd spent three years in and seen kids come and go.

Sighing, uncomfortable with where her mind was wandering, she reached into her bag and pulled out the tiny photo album she'd managed to keep secret and safe. Inside were a handful of pictures, her parents looking happy, a group shot of all three, and more recently a somewhat blurred picture of her and Ally.

Without meaning to, she dozed off, a smile curling her pale lips at the corners.


	4. Schooling

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

_**Neko:**_Short chapter is short, but you get two of them right now. Haha, JuJu, you're behind now. *shifty eyes*

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_04: Schooling_

Seras watched the children around her, looking for one in particular… Eyes widening in recognition, the blonde grinned and trotted over to Sarah, plopping down on the grass next to her. Ally told her that if she wanted to be a police officer, she couldn't forget everything she learned in school while she was _'on the run'_ as the older girl had put it, so Seras had made some friends with the local kids and helped them with their homework – Ally came once when Seras and Sarah were out particularly late, and corrected both of them on the math worksheet. Seras had been in this city for about a week now, marking the fifteenth day away from the orphanage, and she liked it a lot. There were a lot of places to sleep at night, including some unlocked sheds when it got especially cold, and none of the grown ups had openly questioned her yet. Ally had actually found a house for her to take a shower at, and – Seras felt guilty, still – talked her into taking a few of the shirts tucked in the far back of the dresser, they were only a little bit too big.

"You'll get sick if you're too cold." Ally had reasoned, and Seras shrugged uncomfortably, but stuffed them in her bag obediently, she didn't want to make her only friend mad, after all.

Ally's "survival skills" were mostly rules, like to not wander openly at night, it could be dangerous, stay low in the morning, so adults wouldn't try to send her back to the school she didn't go to, or a home she didn't have, and be careful about where she slept. It was exciting the first few days, but now it was just life, and kinda boring, too.

Seras and Sarah played together into Sarah had to go home, and Seras waved bye as she opened her bag and rummaged around for an apple. She was starting to miss the meals at the orphanage, one could only go so long on chips, cookies, and other easy to carry food. Humming, she dropped onto the swing and munched the fruit, losing herself in thought. The sky began to darken, but Seras didn't notice, still swinging away in the empty park.

A chill crept up her spine and she stiffened, half turning, and catching a glimpse of a man staring at her from the other side of the grassy field. Something about him seemed _off_, or maybe she was just paranoid, but Seras didn't like it. She stopped swinging, grabbed her backpack, and started walking in the opposite direction of the man. The streets were relatively empty with only the occasional car passing by, this was a rather quiet place. Seras shivered and rubbed her hands along the backs of her arms, walking a little bit faster.

She heard footsteps behind her.

Gripping the straps of her backpack, she ran. The footsteps hurried after her, and she felt the urge to scream bubble in her throat. She bolted around the corner, heading for the nearest neighborhood, but she tripped on a deep crack in the sidewalk and fell. Pain exploded in her hands as they turned from her shoulders to brace herself, and a white flash burst in front of her eyes as her head bounced off the concrete.


	5. Surviving

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

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_05: Surviving_

Seras woke slowly, head throbbing, mouth dry as cotton, and found herself curled at the foot of a tree, back arched uncomfortably over a protruding root. "Where am I?" She rasped, coughing and clutching her throat painfully. Nobody answered, and she squinted, finding her backpack a few feet away. She crawled over to it and found that all her food and money was gone. She felt like crap, but she didn't want to stay here.

Sniffling, she pulled the now much lighter bag over one shoulder and limped her way to the left, completely lost already in the densely packed trees.

_'What kind of man steals from a kid?'_ She thought bitterly, then cringed as her headache increased. She didn't know how long she wandered, half blind in the dark, but eventually she saw some light and found herself facing a wooden fence, and a porch light from a house filtering through the cracks. Well, she wasn't going to approach a lit house, so she walked along the wooden wall until she found a dark yard with a section missing on the bottom board. Peeking cautiously, she saw no sign of anyone home, or a dog, and she crawled through, stumbling over to the faucet and getting a drink of water in her cupped hands after washing them of dried blood and dirt. She tried the door, and even some windows, but they were locked. She saw a rusty shed, and the door rattled as she carefully pulled it open, but there was an open space in the far corner behind some boxes, so she limped her way inside and used one of the oversized shirts as a blanket.

She'd find a bus and go somewhere else, she didn't like this place anymore. It was a good thing she had some emergency money in her sock…

Yawning, she fell asleep, curled into a ball and holding her lumpy backpack like a teddy bear pillow.


	6. Suspicion

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

_**Neko:**_I was gonna update more, but I had a bad headache. So you get one chapter and I'm going to bed. *heartsymbol*

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_06: Suspicion_

Seras curled into a tighter ball as she swam slowly to consciousness, she felt cold. Fingers combed through her hair soothingly, and she relaxed somewhat, nose twitching. She had noticed that Ally always smelled like gunpowder and pennies, she'd hated it at first, but now she was indifferent, and maybe even liked it a bit. Another thing she hated, but was slowly adjusting to, was that Ally always felt cold. "'s cold." Seras muttered, and rolled away from the older girl, nearly falling off the pushed together crates that acted as her bed. _Oh, right_. Ally had found her – Ally _always_ found her, and sometimes it really freaked Seras out – and when she told her what had happened the girl went as still as stone, and Seras almost thought she was _growling_, but then it was over and Ally was riding the bus with her to a place she knew in a different city. "Where are we going?" She had asked, confused but trusting.

"Some place safe. A lot of run aways go there, until they get raided by the bobbies." That had been the end of that conversation, quickly being diverted to other subjects. When they arrived, they walked about three blocks until they reached the warehouse district, heading for the one on the far right that had boards across the door. It turned out that those were a prop and the doors opened easily, leading to a vast empty space littered with unused crates and a couple dozen people, some of them were even children her own age.

Ally wrapped her arms around Seras' shoulders and pulled the girl close to her chest, leaning in to brush her cold cheek against the warm one of the blonde's, "But you're so warm." She cooed, and Seras squirmed, "You're too cold." She grumbled, slipping down off the crate to look up at the white clad ravenette, "I'm hungry."

Ally shrugged and hopped down to stand next to her, walking with her over towards the center where some of the adults were still awake, guarding the food stache. Seras got a sandwich and a can of juice, Ally seemed content with nothing, claiming she ate before coming out to hang with Seras.

A few hours passed companionably before the teen stood, and grinned, "It's that time again, I'll see you again soon." She leaned in and kissed Seras' cheek with chill lips before making her way out of the warehouse and losing herself in the shadows.

"Your friend is odd, girl, I'd be careful around her." One of the adults muttered as she turned back to find her crates for more sleep.

Seras blinked, and stared at the woman oddly, before shrugging, "Yeah, sure."

The next day, on the swing set a few blocks away with a group of kids from the warehouse, Seras noticed a cop car parked on the other side of the field.


	7. You're Being Followed

**_Seras Victoria: Problem Child_**

_**Ketti:**_Another mini mass update to finish off a hiatus-y story. I'MSORRYIFTHESESUCK. I'm just doing my best to finish ones I actually sorta know the ending of. And ... yeah. Don't hate me? *hides*

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_07: You're Being Followed_

Seras was walking with the same group of kids she hung with for the past week, they were coming back from the park and keeping an eye out for any unwary pedestrian to pick pocket or beg food from. Seras glanced behind her and again noticed the cop car parked just down the block. She felt rather uneasy and tugged on Becky's sleeve, nudging her head back towards the car. The older girl turned and frowned, before putting her fingers to her lips and whistling shrilly. The kids scattered and Seras found herself tugged along down the nearest alley with the taller blonde girl.

"You're getting us too much attention, kid." Becky grunted as she pushed a board to the side and they escaped through the carefully obscured hole. "You're just lucky that we take anyone in."

"I'm sorry." Seras mumbled, looking down and skipping around the box attempting to trip her.

"Yeah yeah…" Becky sighed, "Try changing your hairstyle, runt, that might help." Seras nodded and yanked the hair band out, keeping it secure on her wrist as her naturally spiky locks fell loose around her shoulders.

"Not really much of a difference." The teen grumbled, "but it'll do. Remind me to grab you a hat when we get back, kid."


	8. Scuffle

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

* * *

_08: Scuffle_

Seras, and her hat, climbed a tree next to the playground to watch her surroundings more carefully. She yawned and leaned against the trunk, trying to get comfortable. Pulling an apple from her pocket, she blew some of the dust off and shined it on a clean spot of her shirt before taking the first bite. It wasn't quite fresh and crisp, but it was still thirst quenching and she ate it down to the core – which she tucked into a hole in the tree for a squirrel to find – before jumping down and making her way back towards the warehouse. It was getting a bit dark, and they locked the doors at night ever since Becky told the adults about the excess interest the law was beginning to show in them. Not that they weren't aware of the squatters in the building, but most of the run aways were less… what was the word Becky used? Fresh? They'd been on the streets longer and the people looking for them didn't care as much anymore, or at least, that was what Seras thought it meant.

She looked back a few times, but saw nothing suspicious.

Slipping inside, she smiled up at Hannah the mother hen figure of the group, and opened her mouth to ask for a bag of chips, please, when the door burst open.

Five policemen charged the room and took down the nearest adults with carefully aimed billy club blows to the head. The remaining adults and children started screaming and scattering.

"Ally!" Seras yelped as she dodged a grab from a sixth female officer, and dove into the maze of stacked crates.


	9. Capture

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

* * *

_09: Capture_

Seras and a handful of the other kids made it out the back entrance, only to run smack dab into the middle of an ambush. The kids screamed and thrashed and bit – Seras included – but were loaded into a large van regardless and the door was slammed shut and locked from the outside.

"Ally…" Seras whimpered into her knees. She didn't want to go back.

The children were all gathered into one large cell to be organized into groups for foster parents or sent back to orphanages, maybe even returned to their families if they have any. Seras didn't know what happened to the adults. That first remainder of the night she spent uncomfortably on the floor with a blanket, the second she was put up in a temporary home with three other kids her age, and the third was spent not answering questions because _she didn't want to go back._

Eventually they tracked her papers down and found the small list of orphanages she'd already been to. For some reason Seras was not privy to, they decided to lodge her in a different, state run, orphanage in London.


	10. Sent Back

_**Seras Victoria: Problem Child**_

* * *

_10: Sent Back_

Seras found herself crammed into a dorm room with three other girls, and sent back to school with a tutor to catch up on what she'd missed.

She never saw Ally again.

She looked for her friend for weeks afterward, wandering around until she was picked up by the officers keeping an eye on her and dropped back off at Miss Bambridge's Home for Troubled Youth Orphanage.

The only two things that kept her going were; she could become a police officer like her dad, no matter how she currently felt about the law, and that just about every weekend she'd see Integra walking Alucard. She stopped seeing the girl once she reached fifteen, and she was saddened by this.

It wouldn't be fair to say she had no one, she'd made a few friends in school, but they weren't the kind to spend all day with.

So she put the pedal to the metal, and studied her adorable blonde little ass off. Because she would make her dad proud.

And that one fateful night, when she was sent with the special forces to investigate the disappearances in Cheddar village…

Well, you know the rest, don't you?

* * *

_**Ketti:**_It was short. I'MSORRY. That's the end. I mean... you knew it'd end something like this anyways. But yeah. I finished two stories in one day. Yay? I suck. Sorry. ._.


End file.
